Welcome to Culture Hound, InsideHook’s deep dive into the month’s most important cultural happenings, pop and otherwise.
TOE TAP: Birdman Live!
Aside from the one, long take, what makes Birdman such a cool film is the never ending drumming performed by Mexican percussionist, composer Antonio Sanchez. Sanchez is performing his percussion-only score live to picture for a screening of the Oscar-winning Best Picture at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. (Oct. 9)
WATCH: The Snowman
It’s a cold case, literally. A serial killer with a snowman fetish returns to the bleak wintery streets of Oslo, as (*cough* porn name) detective Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) hunts for clues. Based on a best seller and directed by Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy). (Oct. 20)
HEAR: L.A. Podcast Festival
Because of the way we commute, L.A. is the perfect town for podcasts. But it’s nice to see a face to the voice, and the podcast festival is where you do that. Bill Burr. My Favorite Murder. The list of attendees is long. And, if you’re looking to make a podcast of your own, there are lectures and roundtables to get you going. (Oct. 6)
ENJOY (NSFW): Nude
Steve Shaw — the photographer/owner behind Treats!, a quarterly magazine that devotes the bulk of its pages to models shot au naturel — partnered with French photographer David Bellemere to shoot a calendar for a concept called NU Muses, which was billed as fine art at Basel in Miami. And now Starz has the behind-the-scenes documentary on it, which should be … eye-opening. (Oct. 29)
GIVE: L.A. Loves Puerto Rico
To help Puerto Rico recover from two devastating storms, 100 chefs and mixologists are donating 100% of the profits on 1,000s of dishes to the beleaguered country. (Oct. 7 – 14)
LEARN: Leonardo da Vinci
Walter Isaacson canonized Steve Jobs. Here, he tackles another genius, a man of both art and science who was also a social misfit (“Illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical.”). Devour this before the DiCaprio adaptation that no one asked for. (Oct. 17)
SUBSCRIBE: Quartz Obsession
From one of our favorite online publishers, Quartz Obsession is a new email that takes a deep dive into a single newsy topic every weekday, timed for your evening commute (unless you’re driving … then, um, don’t look at your phone). You’ll get history, stats, quotes, charts and interactive elements, all dedicated to one fascinating topic (recently, it was tulips).
LISTEN: Our Spotify playlist
A slightly revamped version of our former monthly playlist, still devoted to the best in new music but now an on-going, living, breathing entity called Put This in Your Ear. We’ll be adding and archiving songs as we go, but still curating great new tunes along the way, including songs from Wolf Alice, Wu-Tang Clan, Phoebe Bridgers, CHVRCHES (covering Tegan & Sara) and, somehow, Bill Murray.
BINGE: Mindhunter
The ‘70s, David Fincher and the hunt for serial killers? Count us in. Netflix’s latest drama is based on the work of the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, which interviewed imprisoned serial killers to understand how they think (a bit o’ Silence of the Lambs there, but real). (Oct. 13)
DANCE: Masquerade Ball
KCRW’s Masquerade Ball returns to The McArthur, and this year’s line-up is strong: The Black Madonna, Matthew Dear, Tensnake, Moon Boots, Lucent Dossier, Lucha VaVOOM as well as KCRW’s DJ’s. You’ll need to bring your costume a-game. (Oct. 28)
And don’t forget… Best-selling author Dave Eggers (The Circle) tackles anthropomorphic art in the illustrated Ungrateful Mammals (Oct. 17) … Marc Maron shares his learnings from his WTF podcast in Waiting For the Punch (Oct. 10) … Personal tragedy can’t keep down comedian Patton Oswalt, who debuts this stand-up special Annihilation on Netflix (Oct. 17) … Film buffs: Be sure to check out our 2017 Fall Movie Guide … Book buffs: Be sure to check out our 2017 Fall Book Guide (unreleased Vonnegut!) … Finally, welcome back Mr. Robot (Oct. 11), Riverdale (Oct. 11), The Walking Dead (Oct. 22) and Stranger Things (Oct. 27).
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